Steven Knutson

Graduate Student

About me: I’m originally from the suburbs of Chicago and received a Bachelor's degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology with a Chemistry minor from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2010. I then worked for Thermo Fisher Scientific for 6 years as an analytical chemist and protein biology research scientist. During that time I also earned a Master’s degree in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Illinois Chicago. I then moved to Salt Lake City in 2016 to start my Ph.D. here at the University of Utah. On a personal level, I’m very interested in golf, hiking, skiing, rock climbing, canyoneering, scuba diving, aviation, botany, cooking, nutritional biochemistry, fitness, reading, learning languages, space exploration, and of course all things science.

Research: I’m interested in a variety of projects. I’m currently working to evolve and engineer synthetic ribozymes than can carry out new functions for basic science and translational applications. I’m also developing a microfluidic bead-based droplet platform for high-throughput analysis of coding and non-coding RNA sequences in mammalian cells and tissues. Similarly, I’m also interested in self-alkylating ribozymes for RNA labeling in the cell, with a particular focus on real-time tracking and quantification of edited RNA sequences. I’m also researching the use of aptamer-functionalized viral particles as a platform for nanobiotechnology, multivalent biosensing, small molecule sequestration, gene therapy, and drug delivery applications. Last but certainly not least, I’m also very intrigued by the general therapeutic and biomedical potential of xeno nucleic acid aptamers.

Email: u1062348(at)utah(dot)edu